Remember This Moment
by Newtype Zeta
Summary: Sasuke has arrived at the most critical crossroad of his entire life. With an uncertain future staring him in the face, a stranger appears in an attempt to put things into perspective one last time.


_**Remember this Moment**_

By NewtypeZeta

_Naruto © Masashi Kishimoto Studio Pierrot TV Tokyo GAINAX Aniplex SME Visual Works Cartoon Network YTV (Canada) Viz Communications ShoPro Entertainment STUDIOPOLIS, Inc. Game One Kana Video Made In Europe Cartoon Network L.A. Xystus Artsound Mexico ABS-CBN Hero Mediaset Panini Video Italia Panini Video Cartoon Network L.A. (Brasil) Dublarte Shonen Jump (Japan) Shonen Jump (USA) Shueisha Glènat España Carlsen Comics Banzai! Japonica Polonica Fantastica (JPF) " Shonen Jump (Sweden)_

_All Fanfics created by NewtypeZeta (me) were written for the sole purpose of shared entertainment and not intended for publication or sale._

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His headband had fallen, the symbolic scratch across the Leaf Village symbol glaring up at him, as if mocking him silently.

_How had it come to this? The infamous 'Dead Last' of their age group, matching him blow for blow, even while he utilized the Curse Seal._

It would seem that Naruto's declaration about not always being left behind had come to pass. And he could only begin to comprehend that with enough time, there was an overbearing possibility that the blonde would surpass him in skill.

"Naruto..." Sasuke thought aloud.

He glanced down at his fallen teammate. The blonde's eyes were closed and he was decidedly unconscious. If ever there was a time to be certain of defeating his rival and activating the Ultimate Sharingan, it was here and now.

"I..."

Pain flared and his left arm spasmed terribly from his overuse of Chidori. Had he not invoked the Curse Seal, he would surely have died. He fell to his knees, now mere inches from his teammate's face.

As the rain continued to fall with increasing fervor, he felt a sudden presence and sprang to his feet and fell into a defensive stance, ready to fight off any would-be attacker...

... and came face to face with a mere boy, certainly no older than himself, maybe even younger by at most a year or two.

A boy he had never seen before in his life, but could immediately feel a sense of familiarity pouring off of the stranger. He wore no forehead protector to identify his village of origin, only a plain white headband wrapped securely where his forehead protector should have been, with two separate lengths of cloth about a foot long each trailing down his back.

The boy was perhaps only an inch shorter than Sasuke, sported close-cropped jet black hair like himself and oddly enough, wore a pair of sunglasses that were far more stylish than Shino's round lenses. While rectangular in shape and fitting closely to his face, Sasuke could still see behind the lenses despite the clouds and the rain.

Surprisingly, the boy's eyes were shut in an eerie reminiscence of Kakashi-sensei. Despite this, the boy's 'gaze' was centered squarely at him. Although unlikely, Sasuke was certain that there must be some ninja capable of such a feat, so he maintained a calm air.

"Who are you?" He asked, still physically and emotionally drained from his fight with Naruto.

"No one you should concern yourself with." The boy answered, his voice smooth and his words betraying a maturity not normally seen in children as young as he obviously was.

"I find that hard to believe." Sasuke retorted.

The boy merely shrugged his shoulders.

"Believe what you want to, Uchiha Sasuke." He replied.

Sasuke's eyes widened slightly and he tensed himself, ready to defend himself against another person who threatened to take him back to Konoha and deny him the power he sought.

The boy's right eyebrow rose in a look of confusion before he shook his head and made his way over to Naruto, kneeling beside him and inspecting the boy as he'd seen the medic-nins do during the Chuunin exams. His hands glowed an ethereal blue as he diagnosed Naruto's condition. Sasuke must have been more exhausted than he thought possible, otherwise he would have certainly asked how someone so young would know medic-nin procedures.

"Are you here to take me back to the Village?" Sasuke asked, his voice harder than he might have intended.

"Not at all." The stranger answered.

"Then why..." Sasuke trailed off, puzzled.

"Consider me a fly on the proverbial wall Uchiha." He continued, removing his hand from Naruto's chest, glowing chakra receding back into his palm.

Sasuke didn't say anything in response.

"Uzumaki isn't critically injured. He should last long enough for Hatake to get him back to the hospital." The stranger thought aloud.

Sasuke's eyes widened as he glanced around fervently, straining to catch sight of his soon-to-be former sensei.

"Don't worry, he's about ten minutes away. So you should be fine, whatever you decide to do." The stranger continued.

"What?" Sasuke asked, wondering how this person he'd never met could possibly know that he'd intended to leave the village seeing as how only his fellow classmates had been sent after him in a decisively covert manner.

"I'll get straight to the point Uchiha, as we don't have a great deal of time." The stranger began.

"I am here to give you what all the others have tried to deny you; the full knowledge and scope of your actions." He stopped momentarily, waiting to see if Sasuke would interrupt him.

When the Uchiha simply remained where he was, the stranger continued where he had left off.

"Uchiha Sasuke, what you do within the next five minutes will determine the very course of history as we know it." He explained. Sasuke's eyes shot into his hairline at the very frank proclamation.

"The decision you are about to make is, without a doubt, THE most important one you will make in your LIFETIME." He paused.

"Your decision regarding whether or not you pursue power through Orochimaru will forever mark you. You will either become known as the shining example of the Uchiha in their darkest hour, or the fool who ensured their destruction. It is here and now that the fate of your clan will be decided." He explained.

"The task of restoring the Uchiha Clan was appointed to you Sasuke, and to you alone. If you can't do this, then no one will. My purpose here is merely to give you the proper perspective so that you might understand that innumerable lives, not just your own, hang in the balance."

"Others wanted to make this decision for you. Deny the battle and never allow it to happen. I will lay the entire story before you today and allow you to see the full scope of your actions regarding this decision." He motioned for Sasuke to be silent as he'd opened his mouth to ask another question.

Sasuke understood. Time was in pitifully short supply right now and the boy had his very rapt attention.

"If you pursue power through Orochimaru, you will indeed become very strong, but the price you pay for this power and the opportunity to defeat your brother will come at an exorbitant cost. One you will almost be unwilling to pay, but will just the same. Even if you recover from paying this price, it is unlikely that you will be in any condition to lead your clan in its reconstruction." He began.

"However, if you stay and return to Konoha, stating that Naruto's faith in you stirred you back to your senses, you will not grow nearly as strong physically, but instead will be forced to rely on the strengths of your team to defeat your brother. It will take longer for sure, but you may very well emerge from the conflict strong enough to lead your clan with honor and perhaps restore it to what it once was and more. That and the price you would have otherwise had to pay will not be a factor." He continued.

"This decision Sasuke, is yours and yours alone. In five minutes time, Hatake Kakashi will arrive at the precipice of the cliff over there." He continued, pointing towards the sheer wall of rock behind him.

Sasuke's eyebrows furrowed in thought, taking in this information, turning it over in every manner possible. The young stranger stayed silent, his eyes wandering outward from the waterfall, gazing towards the distant horizon where the rushing water disappeared.

"How do you know this?" Sasuke asked, the only question he knew he had time to ask.

The boy glanced back at him, his expression unreadable, his eyes firmly remaining closed as he spoke.

"One who does not learn from the mistakes of the past are doomed to repeat them Uchiha Sasuke, and rest assured that history will always remember." The stranger replied before turning back towards the horizon.

Sasuke's head lowered until his gaze saw only the ground, his mind churning over the words that he'd heard. He shut his eyes tightly, pouring over all the information as quickly as he possibly could. After what felt like a small eternity, clarity returned to him and resolve filled his entire being, his path now crystal clear before his newly-enhanced vision.

"I've decided..." He thought aloud, his voice growing in confidence with every passing moment as he raised his head to look the stranger in the eye, a small smirk forming on his face.

To his great surprise, the stranger had vanished into thin air. No sound, no footprints, and no traces of chakra usage; absolutely no proof that he'd ever been there to begin with. Sasuke abruptly looked back towards the cliff, knowing that Kakashi would be appearing soon...

_Remember this moment Uchiha Sasuke._

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AN: This story was the brainchild of Episode 134 and the constantly nagging feeling that Sasuke was constantly manipulated by those around him, including his brother, Orochimaru, and even the higher-ups of Konoha, who I felt never really impressed upon him the fact that he might be altering more lives than his own by doggedly pursuing revenge.

There are, of course, two different ways for this to end. The canon ending is that Sasuke leaves mere minutes before Kakashi arrives. The alternate ending is that he stays and begins building a new future for himself by seeing the bigger picture and heeding Kakashi's advice about pursuing revenge, but above all else realizing that he doesn't have to play the game according to the rules set out by someone else, something that has no doubt eluded him ever since his family's death.

Feel free to leave your votes of which path you'd like to see Sasuke choose in your reviews. Be aware that the mystery character has a very good idea of which path Sasuke will choose despite his good-natured intervention. (Read his words closely at the end, it'll become clear.)

"Who is the mystery character?" – If I receive enough reviews (10+), then I'll write another piece regarding the identity of this character, and it's one doozy of a story to tell. (It's an idea that I've been fostering for a while, but as I'm still new to writing epics, this seemed an easier way to introduce myself to writing for the Naruto characters.

Constructive criticism is always welcome, so feel free to tell me what worked in this story, what needs tweaking, and what outright doesn't work at all.


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